The Rising Cost of Wildfires

The expense of fighting wildfires in the United States has tripled in the last decade, according to a new study.

An assessment by the nonpartisan Headwaters Economics found the annual cost of federal wildfire protection and suppression has averaged more than $3 billion per year since 2002.

During the 1990s, the cost was less than $1 billion annually.

The independent group noted in its report that the nation’s six worst fire seasons since 1960 have all occurred since 2000. However, federal appropriations for combating wildfires dropped in 2012 to their lowest level since 2000.

The recent increase in large wildfires was attributed to two factors. The first was “historic management practices” that have resulted in “overgrazing that reduced grass cover and encouraged seedling growth; logging of the large pines that led to a less fire-tolerant understory; and aggressive fire suppression that eliminated the natural, low-intensity fires which reduced biomass levels,” according to the study.

Federal fire protection expenses have gone up in part because of the more severe fire seasons. But it is also a result of allowing developers to build homes in and near forests and other wildlands that are at risk from wildfires.